Iraqi Shia volunteer forces leave Tikrit after liberation

Iraqi Shia volunteer forces have left Tikrit after helping the army recapture the strategic northern city from Takfiri ISIL militants.

Reports say the move came following a Saturday meeting between Iraq’s Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and officials of the city and its province Salahuddin.

Ahmed al-Kraim, the head of the provincial council, confirmed that the volunteer forces are stationed outside Tikrit.

According to local officials, federal and local police along with army troops are responsible for the city’s security.

On March 31, Abadi said that units of government forces, backed by Shia and Sunni volunteer forces, had managed to retake control of the city after heavy battles with the ISIL terrorists, who had seized Tikrit in June last year.

Tikrit’s recapture is crucial for the Iraqi army in its quest to take control of the country’s second-largest city, Mosul.

ISIL started its campaign of terror in Iraq in early June 2014. The heavily-armed militants took control of the country’s northern city of Mosul before sweeping through parts of the country’s Sunni Arab heartland.

Iraqi soldiers, police units, Kurdish forces, Shia volunteers and Sunni tribesmen have succeeded in driving the ISIL terrorists out of some areas in Iraq.